Quiet Retreat
© 2002 Fran DiDomenicis, Ph.D.
How often have you said, “I wish I could just take a day and do NOTHING!”? Well, here are some thoughts about how to do that.
But first, let’s face the facts. There’s no such thing as doing nothing. Your idea of nothing may be watching TV, reading the newspaper, sitting on the beach… All of these are fine activities, but a far cry from nothing. Even if you were to just sit still with your eyes closed, you’d soon start thinking, daydreaming, planning, etc. – there would still be a lot of something happening, just at a more subtle level.
My goal in this article is to suggest a way of doing more nothing (or less something) than you may be used to as a way of replenishing yourself, and allowing deep personal resources to emerge.
PLACE
Prepare an indoor space that will be quiet and free of distractions. A room in which the lighting can be comfortably dimmed is good. Arrange some part of it that will look uncluttered and peaceful. A short table or stand of some kind and a lit candle is nice too. For beginners, stick to the great indoors. Outdoor settings have too many distractions and nature may have other plans for her space.
TIME
First, decide on an amount of time to “take off.” It could be a day, even a weekend, or maybe just a period of three or four hours. The important thing is to take it!
Decide on a time to start and a time to stop. Also decide how you’ll break up that time into shorter periods for different activities. For example:
Here’s an example of a 3 hour meditation “retreat” that you could do on a Saturday morning.
| 8:00 AM | Wake up, dress, have light snack or juice |
| 8:30-9:00 | Meditation |
| 9:00-9:30 | Journaling or walking meditation |
| 9:30-10:00 | Breakfast |
| 10:00-10:30 | Meditation, brief stretch |
| 10:30-11:00 | Meditation |
| 11:00-11:30 | Journaling |
The important thing is to structure the time and activities and then pretty much stick to it.
SILENCE
Silence is perhaps the most powerful element of any kind of mini-retreat. Basically what we retreat from is all that has to do with WORDS – spoken words, printed words, and thoughts inside our minds – especially when there are a lot of them moving fast!
You might be saying to yourself, “Oh, I could never be silent for a day. I couldn’t do it for an hour!” “It would drive me crazy!” “I’d lose my mind!”
Contrary to what you may fear, silence will help you FIND your mind! In the busy-ness of our days we’re bombarded by words, images, and other sensations, and we become fragmented -- a series of reactions to things, but sometimes without a center -- an “I” who is doing the reacting. Silence helps us find our “I.”
There really is someone inside of you who is calm, relaxed, and who knows what to do -- a you who can guide you and comfort you, surprise you and delight you – a you who can create things out of nothing, nothing but a thought or an inspiration. There’s a you that is SO cool, you’ve just GOT to meet you!
And the way to do that is silence. Life minus the noise. What would that be like? By the way, silence means no TV (even if the sound’s turned off), no stereo or radio, no computer, no comic books or catalogues, no watching the neighbors out the back window. It means,
Stop taking in stuff from the outside and just see what’s already in there!
Only when you stop the usual running around of the mind will you have a chance of running into yourself. Only when you do that will you find the energy, calm, creativity and peace that you say you want so badly. So now what do you do with the time and space and absence of other distractions?
Check out the article on the Resources page for instructions on a Basic Mindfulness Meditation to help you get started.
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